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CIA Analysis of the Warsaw Pact Forces

CIA Analysis of the Warsaw Pact Forces: The Importance of Clandestine Reporting

This study examines the role of clandestine reporting in CIA’s analysis of the Warsaw Pact from 1955 to 1985. The Soviet Union established itself as a threat to the West at the end of World War II by its military occupation of eastern European countries and the attempts of its armed proxies to capture Greece and South Korea. The West countered with the formation of NATO. While the West welcomed West Germany into NATO, the Soviets established a military bloc of Communist nations with the Warsaw Treaty of May 1955. This study continues CIA’s efforts to provide a detailed record of the intelligence derived from clandestine human and technical sources from that period. This intelligence was provided to US policy makers and used to assess the political and military balances and confrontations in Central Europe between the Warsaw Pact and NATO during the Cold War.

“Developments redacted,” CIA/DP Memorandum for the Record from John Maury, Chief SR Division, 3 August 1961.

“Directive of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR: Results of Operational Training in 1977-1978 and Tasks for 1979-1980,” CIA/DO Intelligence Information Special Report, 25 October 1979 (DOI, 14 November 1978).